Webflow vs Shopify: Which platform is perfect for your online store?

Both Webflow and Shopify have been around for a long time on the market. They are both popular and each has their unique advantage to draw in customers. 

Webflow vs Shopify is a tough webmatch. If you are new to eCommerce, it can be hard to tell which one will suit you better.

This article will compare Webflow and Shopify across various aspects to help you determine which platform is perfect for your online store. 

Webflow vs Shopify Quick Key Points

Shopify is a full-fledged online store with extensive eCommerce features, SEO capability, blog, inventory management features,... However, you need coding skills to make your theme look truly unique.

Shopify is the better option if:

• You require a comprehensive eCommerce solution with features like multi-channel selling and extensive customization options.
• You want to build a long-term, scalable online store with a focus on brand building and customer retention.
• Mobile responsiveness and SEO optimization are crucial for your online presence.
• You prefer a platform with a large user base and extensive community support.

Webflow only provides the basic features for an eCommerce website. However, Webflow’s strongest suit is its visual capability. It provides all the tools you need to make your website look beautiful without knowing any coding.

Webflow is the better option if:

• Your store doesn’t sell a lot of products and you have no use for advanced eCommerce features yet.
• You want a website with unlimited customization without any coding knowledge.
• You want to host your own website or let another hosting provider do it.
• You don’t want to put in money, just do it for a hobby, or aren’t really to commit anything yet.
• You want a website to showcase content and not to build an online store.

Pricing and Value for Money - Shopify Wins

Webflow Pricing

Webflow offers three eCommerce plans: Standard, Plus, and Advanced, with prices ranging from $29 to $212 per month. Despite the significant price differences, all plans offer similar eCommerce features, but they vary mainly in the number of products you can sell and the yearly sales volume.

The Standard plan allows up to 500 products and a sales limit of $50,000, while the Plus plan supports 1,000 products and a $200,000 sales threshold. The Advanced plan removes the sales cap entirely but limits the product count to 3,000 items.

Additionally, the Standard plan allows for only three staff accounts, whereas the Plus and Advanced plans support 10 and 15 accounts, respectively. Another important consideration is that the Standard plan includes a 2% transaction fee and does not provide access to unbranded emails.

Although Webflow offers a free plan, it does not permit sales until you upgrade to a paid package, and there's no 14-day trial limit—meaning you can use the free account indefinitely but won't generate any revenue without upgrading.

Shopify Pricing

The features available on each Shopify plan vary depending on the one you choose, and there are several key differences to be aware of. To build a fully customizable online store, you’ll need to opt for the 'Basic' plan or higher, as the 'Shopify Starter' plan primarily supports sales on social media or through embeddable 'Buy Buttons' on existing websites.

 As you move up the pricing tiers, Shopify’s reporting tools become increasingly sophisticated, offering advanced insights into sales and customer behavior. Real-time shipping rates from third-party carriers are exclusive to the 'Advanced Shopify' or 'Shopify Plus' plans, although they can be accessed on the 'Shopify' plan for an additional fee or with an annual payment. 

Additionally, transaction and credit card fees decrease as you move up the pricing ladder, which can lead to significant savings for high-volume stores. 

For businesses looking to sell internationally, features like applying duties and import taxes at checkout are only available on the 'Advanced' plan or higher. Lastly, the 'Shopify Plus' plan is an enterprise-grade solution aimed at larger organizations or those with advanced requirements regarding APIs, server uptime, task automation, and support. These distinctions ensure that Shopify's pricing plans cater to a wide range of business needs, from small startups to large enterprises.

Ease of Use - Shopify Wins

Since Shopify has been around for a long optimizing eCommerce stores, it knows what to do and it will guide you through every step to set up your store in the simplest and easiest way possible. This is a big plus for people who are new to the eCommerce business since this task can be a little bit daunting in the beginning.

Shopify is much easier to use than Webflow for both managing content and designing your website. It features a user-friendly dashboard with a left-hand menu for accessing key features and a right-hand pane for configuration and editing. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows users to create customized, attractive page layouts quickly, making the learning curve relatively gentle. Most people can start building a store immediately after signing up.

Conversely, Webflow is more complex, combining a website builder with a Content Management System (CMS). Its design interface involves a central canvas and control panels for adding elements and assigning HTML and CSS properties, making it suitable for users with web design backgrounds.

Despite offering extensive 'how to' materials, Webflow's steep learning curve means it usually takes weeks for users to get comfortable with the platform. Therefore, for beginners or those seeking simplicity, Shopify is the better choice.

Template Design - Webflow wins

Webflow just simply offers a much larger template library than Shopify. It has over 2000 templates (including 48 free templates) compared to Shopify’s 200 templates. Moreover, Websflow’s web builder is so much more powerful than Shopify so customers can achieve a unique look for their website easily.

Shopify, while it doesn’t have as many templates as Webflow, can accommodate most of your design needs. Its theme has a price ranging from free to $380. Of course, premium themes will come with a more robust feature set for eCommerce.

Still, in this regard, Webflow beats Shopify by a mile.

eCommerce Features - Shopify Wins

Ever since Shopify was launched, it has always been aiming toward the need for eCommerce stores and it has been doing it for almost 2 decades. So it is no surprise that Shopify is equipped to cater to whatever an online store might need.

Meanwhile, Webflow has only been adding eCommerce features recently. While they are decent, they cannot be compared to that of Shopify.

We are going into more detail below.

Products and Inventory Management

Shopify allows users to sell unlimited products and supports a large number of product variants, making it well-suited for large stores that need to manage a high volume of items. Its bulk product import feature further simplifies the process by eliminating the need to upload products individually. 

In contrast, Webflow imposes restrictions based on pricing plans: the Standard plan allows up to 500 products, the Plus plan supports 1,000 products, and the Advanced plan can handle up to 3,000 items. Additionally, Webflow's sales volume is limited, with caps on the Standard and Plus plans.

Despite these limitations, Webflow offers comprehensive inventory management, including inventory tracking, low quantity and out-of-stock warnings, and the ability to add product variants. While Webflow is suitable for smaller stores, Shopify's scalability makes it capable of dealing with even larger businesses.

Product Types

Both Webflow and Shopify allow you to sell physical and digital products, as well as services. However, to sell digital items on Shopify, you'll need to download a free app like Digital Downloads, which enables customers to download their purchases. In contrast, Webflow allows you to sell digital products without needing to take this extra step.

Shipping

Unless you are a drop shipper, you'll need effective shipping tools to deliver your products. Shopify excels in this area by offering discounted rates through partnerships with major carriers like USPS, DHL Express, and UPS.

Additionally, Shopify allows you to buy and print shipping labels directly from the platform, simplifying the shipping process. You can easily calculate shipping costs, set shipping locations, and adjust prices based on weight or destination, making one of the most complicated parts of selling much more manageable.

In contrast, Webflow's shipping features are less developed. While you can configure manual shipping rates, to achieve the same level of functionality that Shopify offers, you'll need to integrate Webflow with a third-party app like Shippo. This additional step can make the shipping process more complex and less seamless compared to Shopify's built-in solutions.

POS

There are many stores that use both online and offline channels to sell products. In order for them to synchronize their online and offline store, they need a POS system. 

Shopify offers its own proprietary POS system, which makes sure your inventory is always synced, allowing you to stay on top of stock levels regardless of where you’re selling. 

Unfortunately, Webflow currently does not offer a POS system or integration, which can be a limitation for businesses that need to manage both online and offline sales seamlessly.

Apps

When it comes to apps, Shopify App Store is obviously superior. It features thousands of different apps and tools that cater to all kinds of needs. All of the apps work seamlessly with the themes on the Shopify store, increasing the functionality of your website.

Webflow, however, doesn’t have an app store. If you want a new feature, you will have to hire someone to code it into your store.

Payment Options & Transaction Fees - Shopify Wins

Shopify has its own payment system - Shopify Payments - and if you don’t want to use it, you can choose from more than 100 other payment gateways, including famous ones such as PayPal and Amazon. If you use Shopify Payments, you won’t have to pay the transaction fees.

Like Shopify, Webflow also requires you to pay a transaction fee when using a payment gateway. However, the range of available gateways on Webflow is more limited, offering choices such as Stripe, Apple Pay, and PayPal. For the Standard plan, you’ll incur a 2% transaction fee, but this fee drops to 0% if you opt for the more expensive Plus or Advanced plans.

Marketing Features - Shopify Wins

Reports and Analytics

Analytics and accurate reporting give you full visibility over your store’s performance from day one, allowing you to track progress and make necessary adjustments. 

Shopify includes built-in analytics that provide insights into your store's performance. Additionally, you can connect your Shopify store to Google Analytics for even more detailed data. However, Shopify lacks blog-specific analytics, so if blogging is a central aspect of your business, Webflow might be a better fit.

Webflow, on the other hand, has limited built-in analytics that mostly covers basic visitor counts. For more detailed reporting, you’ll need to connect your Webflow store to Google Analytics. While Webflow may offer better blogging features, its overall analytics capabilities are less comprehensive compared to Shopify’s robust analytics tools.

SEO

Because Webflow is a website builder-CMS hybrid, it excels in SEO. It keeps its code clean for search engine crawlers and includes features like meta titles and descriptions, image alt text, custom URLs, and XML sitemap generation.

Shopify also covers the SEO basics and provides best practice tips as you upload products. However, it lacks built-in keyword support. To fill this gap, Shopify users can download apps like Smart SEO and SEO Manager, although these typically come with additional costs.

Overall, while both platforms offer strong SEO capabilities, Webflow's integrated approach makes it particularly well-suited for SEO, whereas Shopify relies more on third-party apps to enhance its SEO functionalities.

Social Media Integration

Both Shopify and Webflow offer robust social media integration, allowing you to sell on social channels, set up Google Ads, and use Facebook Pixel for targeted advertisements. They also let you embed social feeds and icons onto your website pages. However, to unlock these features, you'll need to download or integrate various apps.

Webflow offers around 13 social media integrations, including EmbedSocial, EmbedStories, and Twitter Share. Shopify, on the other hand, provides a much larger array of integrations. This includes Snapchat Ads, Pinterest 'Pin It' buttons, and multimedia apps like Video Crockpot, which allows you to create product videos for your social feeds.

In summary, while both platforms support social media integration, Shopify offers a broader range of apps and tools to enhance your social media marketing efforts.

Customer Support - Shopify Wins

Shopify has the edge over Webflow when it comes to customer support. Shopify users benefit from an AI support chatbot, live chat, and email support, whereas Webflow primarily offers email support to most users. Both platforms provide phone support for users on enterprise plans.

Additionally, Shopify outshines Webflow in terms of multilingual support materials. The Shopify help center offers resources in 21 different languages, while Webflow's help materials are disappointingly available only in English.

Despite these differences, the quality of online help materials for both Shopify and Webflow is very high, with clear, easy-to-follow, and comprehensive guides available.

Shopify vs Webflow Conclusion

When comparing Webflow and Shopify, the best choice depends on your primary goals.

If your main objective is to create a visually stunning website to showcase content, Webflow is the better option. Its powerful designer tool allows for the creation of highly attractive and unique sites, perfect for content creators such as bloggers, design agencies, and photographers. Webflow's animation features add a significant 'wow factor,' making it ideal for startups wanting to stand out.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a hosted online store builder, Shopify is the clear winner. Shopify is specifically designed to facilitate eCommerce, offering comprehensive point-of-sale functionality, detailed eCommerce reporting, and sophisticated digital marketing features. It allows you to sell an unlimited number of products on all plans and supports a wide range of payment gateways.

Moreover, Shopify includes excellent built-in multilingual and multi-currency features across all its main plans, making it easier and more affordable to grow your eCommerce business both domestically and internationally.

Additionally, Shopify's massive app store ensures that you can add any required functionality to your store, whereas Webflow's smaller selection of third-party apps and integrations can make adding extra features more challenging. Overall, for those focused on eCommerce, Shopify provides a more robust and scalable solution.

Bonus

Both Webflow and Shopify have their own distinctive advantages. Webflow is amazing for the front-end design of your store while Shopify is superior in terms of the back-end part of your store.

Because of this, many people have tried to combine Webflow and Shopify by using a plugin called Udesly. Basically, you build a website using Webflow and then import it to Shopify using Udesly. This way, you can achieve a perfect blend of visuals and functionality.